Posted 4 years ago on Aug. 28, 2013, 9:12 a.m. EST by shoozTroll
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In the screw Detroit lottery!!

Yes this is what's being charged to "administer" Detroit's forced bankruptcy.

"In the rush to privatize America, nothing may symbolize the destruction of the notion of democracy and the public commons -- up until now -- as much as the takeover of Detroit by an "emergency manager," Kevyn Orr, appointed by Tea Party Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

Detroit had long ago been abandoned by the auto companies that once made it among the most vibrant and economically energized cities in the United States. It's been declining in population at the same time predatory lenders are foreclosing on what remains of the depleted housing stock, that which hasn't fallen into rubble.

So it's a bit shocking to read on Michigan Live (mlive.com):

The [Detroit] News reported this week Ernst & Young is the highest-paid consultant, pulling in $6.6 million to analyze the city's cash flow. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's former law firm, Jones Day, has been paid $1 million, though the firm is already writing off billable expenses it won't collect from the city.

How high could the bill go? An expert quoted by the News estimated the total bill for bankruptcy-related fees will be far higher. Expenses could “easily” top $250 million, Jim McTevia of McTevia & Associates, a turnaround firm in Bingham Farms, told the News.

Here's the kicker: the judge overseeing the bankruptcy appointed a $600 an hour attorney, Robert M. Fishman, to "monitor" the city's bankruptcy fees."

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pulling in $6.6 million to analyze the city's cash flow. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's former law firm, Jones Day, has been paid $1 million, though the firm is already writing off billable expenses it won't collect from the city.

Detroit's debts are a fraction of the $18bn lawyers pushing for bankruptcy say they are, and their costs are "irrelevant, misleading and inflated," according to a report released Wednesday.

"A Demos thinktank report, issued as a city judge decides whether to allow Detroit to file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history, lays the blame for the city's woes at the feet of falling revenues, Wall Street banks and "extreme assumptions" calculated to make its problems worse than they are.

"There is no doubt that the city has suffered from structural decline and that state and city policies have not successfully addressed that decline. But that is not the immediate issue in a municipal insolvency. The issue is that the cash currently available does not cover the current expenses of the city," said Walter Turbeville, the report's author, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and a leading expert in infrastructure finance and public private partnerships."

These workers could be forgiven for laboring under the illusion that they would see the pensions for which they worked. These obligations were actually guaranteed under the state's constitution....

Contracts with Wall Street types always seem to draw more respect than contracts with workers. Folks may recall that when AIG was bankrupt and effectively a ward of the government, we were told by the Obama administration (where Emanuel was then chief of staff), that it had to pay out $165 million in bonuses to its senior staff. Many of the AIG employees, who had taken the company into bankruptcy, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from these bonuses.

By contrast, the pensions for Detroit's retirees average just over $18,000 a year. That means many AIG executives got a larger bonus from their bankrupt company in 2009 than Detroit workers will collect over their whole retirement.